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It's not uncommon to find me at one coffee shop or another across
the country during my workday. Not only do I get caffeinated
delights to accompany free Wi-Fi, I also get the benefits of
people-watching and overhearing myriad conversations. And
sometimes those conversations make me want to poke myself in my
left eye.

Coffee shops have become the de facto conference room of the
working class, which means as a frequent coffee shop patron, I'm
privy to a significant amount of BS that spews from tables around
me. I get to hear about overarching concepts and how something's
so user-friendly that it's going to be an inarguable
game-changer. It aggregates content in an innovative fashion and
integrates seamlessly with existing infrastructure.

If you have no idea what any of the above means, that's OK. I
don't either. In fact, no one does (even the people spewing the
words). So this month, I'll ask the tough question:

Is Buzzspeak Killing Your Business?
Buzzspeak is the uncooked spaghetti of the business world: When
you throw it against the refrigerator, nothing sticks. It's lazy
and the epitome of monkey-see, monkey-do. Seriously--would you
know an overarching idea if it bit you on the leg? The only thing
that buzzspeak does for us is make us seem less intelligent than
we truly are. Buzzwords are an excuse to talk around what we
really mean to say, and those are the words that will close
business and help us give our audience what they really wanted
all along: tools that get things done.

So how do you break out of the buzzspeak bubble and start finding
words that work? First, it goes back to the issue of respect.
Respect your audience enough to tell it to them straight. Stop
sugarcoating and dancing around the conversations that get things
done.

I'll bet if you sat down with your audience and asked, "What do
you need?" the answer wouldn't be, "A bunch of words that sound
awesome!" The answer would probably sound something like this: "I
need you to fix my problem."

Once you understand that the reason we all have careers is
because other people's problems need fixing, the next step is to
get to fixing those problems. Here are four tips for closing your
mouth, thus denying the buzzwords bandwidth, and opening it in
the pursuit of problem solving (the heart of entrepreneurship).

Simplicity: If you want your audience to buy
in to what you're putting on the table for sale, don't make
them learn a new language. Simplicity goes a long way, because
when people feel they're not smart enough to understand your
solutions, they feel they're not smart enough to do business
with you.

Brilliance: If what you're offering can make
your client look brilliant to the people who matter most,
that's a huge selling point. You're not the brilliant one for
bringing them the solution--they are the brilliant one for
bringing your solution to the table. Take a moment to
understand how your solutions make your client shine to his or
her audience.

Time: It's the mother of all sins-- wasting
someone's time. Great solutions don't integrate or
aggregate. They save time. While not every solution
saves time, the fact that it might is a fair share more
significant than any sort of crap vocabulary you could throw
into the mix.

Usability: If it takes a village to learn,
it's probably not the best solution. Respect your audience by
offering easy-to-use solutions that make sense for how they
operate. Asking them to change their day-to-day routine won't
get you the yeses you crave.

Our job is to lend value. We don't get points for using big
words--we get points for results. The best solutions never need
dressing up with words, they just need a team who can effectively
communicate their worth and put them into action.